TV shows you miss...

[Trouso]

... and The Grumbleweeds doing something similar but less messy.

The Grumbleweeds! I'd forgotten they existed. You're right, their version of 'humiliate the singer' was more threat based: i.e. the tramp character (Uncle Rubbish?) would slowly follow the terrified singer around the stage as they performed with a bucket of oatmeal, occasionally running a bit through his hands - but that was a far as it went.

[BillShipton]

All I remember about The Grumbleweeds was Wilf 'Gasmask' Grimshaw....and the Jimmy Saville impression (where "Jewellery, jewllery" came from). I think three of them are still going.

Anyway, Hay, no you didn't dream it (I know you have far more exciting things to dream of). Morecambe & Wise did the wall sketch originally with Millicent Martin in the 60s on ITV and redid it with Lulu on the BBC in he 80s.

[Trouso]

All I remember about The Grumbleweeds was Wilf 'Gasmask' Grimshaw....and the Jimmy Saville impression (where "Jewellery, jewllery" came from). I think three of them are still going.

That was it (you have to understand I was very young)! The Jimmy Saville impression was a real tour de force (considerably better than Mike Yarwood's) and, incidentally, the Grumbleweeds are still doing the summer seasons as their original duo (without Maurice, the singer, who now works on his own and apparently calls himself "Maurice Grumbleweed")

A trivial digression from the messy chat - but I'm sure it's all really important, life altering stuff to those concerned.

[BillShipton]

That was it (you have to understand I was very young)! The Jimmy Saville impression was a real tour de force (considerably better than Mike Yarwood's) and, incidentally, the Grumbleweeds are still doing the summer seasons as their original duo (without Maurice, the singer, who now works on his own and apparently calls himself "Maurice Grumbleweed")
A trivial digression from the messy chat - but I'm sure it's all really important, life altering stuff to those concerned.

It is to me! Variety is the spice of life and 70s TV variety a positive vindaloo. OK, just me then.

[Hayley]

Here's one that passed me by at the time but looks like she copped it most weeks. The last clip is the best.



Having not seen the show I have no idea why she has a paddling pool of baked beans in her lounge! I know why I'd have one...

Hayley x

[Splattella]

Sophie was the presenter of a new Emu show (after the late Rod Hull). There was a clip on You Tube of the full scene which is the last of the three in this set, but I can't find it at the mo. In that last clip, Sophie has set up an elaborate trap for Emu to fall into but she falls for it herself, with the great results you see here.

Reminds me that the Sooty Show also had plenty of slosh and water pistol fun. I think it got messier as time went on but there's a limit even for me for the age at which I'll continue tuning in to kids' TV!

[Trouso]

Here's one that passed me by at the time but looks like she copped it most weeks. The last clip is the best.

Having not seen the show I have no idea why she has a paddling pool of baked beans in her lounge! I know why I'd have one...

Hayley x

She looks like my kind of gal! (Pretty, slightly posh but a bit OTT and does a good pratfall)

She looks vaguely like Amanda Hughes, don't you think?

On the subject of Emu (not the European Monetary Union), I can't imagine Emu without the slightly unnerving presence of the late Rod Hull. I loved the show as a kid, right from the time it featured old variety performers like Billy Dainty up to the panto-like Croc and Grotbags' 'Pink Windmill' period (by which time even I was getting a little cynical about it).

We have them to thank, after all, for the often sung (and punch-in-the-face-worthy) catchphrase "There's somebody at the door!"

[SimonW]

What was the name of the actress who plays Sophie...she seems familiar from some other prog?

[BillShipton]

Proud to say that I worked on stage with Billy Dainty (for one show only!) in panto at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. I was writing a feature about the art of being a panto dame for a local magazine (snappily titled Warwickshire & Worcestershire Life) and he let me make an appearance during a matinee (audience - about three). Apart from teaching me how to cross the stage whilst facing the audience, he was full of great anecdotes and amazingly fit considering he smoked non-stop. We did a very brief, very slightly messy routine (mainly flour) in which I was 'his uglier sister' (it wasn't Cinderella) where, fortunately, I had to do very little except hand him things. But it was great to watch him at work and learn a few of the tricks of the trade.

Oh, and like every other journalist in the world, I've be 'emu-ed'. That was at a press do at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham. Sadly I never met 'Sophie' or 'Grotbags' (Carol Lee Scott?). And, yes, Sophie does a very good fall into the pool!

[BillShipton]

What was the name of the actress who plays Sophie...she seems familiar from some other prog?

Sorry don't know. This was wayyyyy after my children's TV watching era. I'm sure somebody younger will!

[Trouso]

Proud to say that I worked on stage with Billy Dainty (for one show only!) in panto at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. I was writing a feature about the art of being a panto dame for a local magazine (snappily titled Warwickshire & Worcestershire Life) and he let me make an appearance during a matinee (audience - about three). Apart from teaching me how to cross the stage whilst facing the audience, he was full of great anecdotes and amazingly fit considering he smoked non-stop. We did a very brief, very slightly messy routine (mainly flour) in which I was 'his uglier sister' (it wasn't Cinderella) where, fortunately, I had to do very little except hand him things. But it was great to watch him at work and learn a few of the tricks of the trade.

Oh, and like every other journalist in the world, I've be 'emu-ed'. That was at a press do at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham. Sadly I never met 'Sophie' or 'Grotbags' (Carol Lee Scott?). And, yes, Sophie does a very good fall into the pool!

Wow. Great story, Bill. Billy Dainty was a household name a few decades ago - (and certainly in our household). Like a lot of the entertainers of that generation - a real grafter who kept on at it until the day he died!

By the way, how do you cross a stage whilst facing the audience? I expect, being a showbiz secret, if you told me you'd have to kill me afterwards.

[SimonW]

What was the name of the actress who plays Sophie...she seems familiar from some other prog?

Sorry don't know. This was wayyyyy after my children's TV watching era. I'm sure somebody younger will!

Found her name - Phillipa Peak. Seems to have been in quite a variety of roles from 1997, including Emmerdale, Doctors and some episodes of Casualty, the latter as recently as this year. Not that I watch any of those regularly, but must have seen her in something.

[Trouso]

(OT) The question is, SimonW, was she in The Bill? And the answer is...yes (two episodes).

[BillShipton]

Like Mr Dainty, Phillipa sounds like a good old fashioned jobbing performer destined never to be A-list. At least, her efforts are appreciated here.

[Splattella]

Here Come the Double Deckers was another kid's TV show from the early 70s with a regular amount of wet and messy fun, buckets of water, occasional pies and eggs and, best of all as I remember, someone repeatedly falling into a skip of cement. The fan site mentions a decorating scene with wallpaper paste getting everywhere, though I myself don't remember that.